The entirety of Pritzker's speech today is extremely important, and I highly recommend everyone read it (or listen to it if you prefer), but I would like to share some segments that highlight the overall point of his message.
"I want to speak plainly about the moment that we are in and the actual crisis, not the manufactured one, that we are facing in this city, and as a state, and as a country. If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm, one that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country."
"Over the weekend, we learned from the media that Donald Trump has been planning, for quite a while now, to deploy armed military personnel to the streets of Chicago."
"What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American."
"If this was really about fighting crime and making the streets safe, what possible justification could the White House have for planning such an exceptional action without any conversations or consultations with the governor, the mayor, or the police?
Let me answer that question: This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals.
This is about the president of the United States and his complicit lackey, Stephen Miller, searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities and end elections."
"There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention."
"So in case there was any doubt as to the motivation behind Trump's military occupations, take note: 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rate have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago.
Eight of the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois."
"To the members of the press who are assembled here today, and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is."
"Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidence, and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab."
"Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, 'Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?' Instead, I say, 'Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.'
You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.
Most alarming, you seem to lack any appropriate concern as our commander-in-chief for the members of the military that you would so callously deploy as pawns in your ever-more-alarming grabs for power."
"To my fellow governors across the nation who would consider pulling your National Guards from their duties at home to come into my state against the wishes of its elected representatives and its people, you would be failing your constituents and your country. Cooperation and coordination between our states is vital to the fabric of our nation and it benefits us all. Any action undercutting that and violating the sacred sovereignty of our state to cater to the ego of a dictator will be responded to."
"Finally, to the Trump administration officials who are complicit in this scheme, to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man, to any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous: we are watching and we are taking names.
This country has survived darker periods than the one that we are going through right now, and eventually the pendulum will swing back."
"You can delay justice for a time, but history shows you cannot prevent it from finding you eventually. If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law."
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Me waiting patiently for the arcane season two trailer, and whole series to release properly because we love and respect artists, animators, directors, writers, screenplay writers, voice actors, interns, and everyone else who contributes to making animated shows a reality.
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🚨 SHIP HATER ALERT IN THE PAW PATROL FANDOM 🚨
For some time, this one guy has been going around (not only on Tumblr, but also on DeviantArt and AO3 as far as we're aware) sending hate comments, asks, messages, DMs, etc, telling people to delete their works portraying/showcasing any ships with the pups that aren't his ideas of canon ships (Chase/Skye or Rocky/Zuma, for example), which is literally hilarious to me because there's no such a thing as an officially confirmed canon couple between any of the pups in the show. Not only that, he also sends threats and keeps creating several accounts while deleting the previous ones to continuously harass the writer/artist, sending death threats in DMs even.
This guy is already well known in my friend's server on Discord, which he got banned from, for disturbing other members; being generally disrespectful; constantly questioning nsfw stuff, ignoring that the server is sfw and regardless if the other people were of age or not, consenting or not; and then when it was detected that he was threatening people over ships, which was the last straw.
As mentioned, he keeps creating new accounts, continuously showing up to keep harassing his chosen victims, fully intending to stress them out and make them stop with their writing/fanarts and drive them away from the fandom, and then he moves on to his next victim. His usernames vary, but the common pattern is that he usually will have something with "phibi", "philip" (or variants like f1l1p), and "2007". Some previously used/already deleted accounts were phibi12, philipb12, szalonyf1l1p2007, otherwordlyphilip2007, thediscoverer2007, stellarslayer2007, niewykrywalny383 among possibly even more. Note that he's been doing things for a long while now - I didn't add all screenshots I got, but I got stuff on him dating back to first half of 2024 even.
If you get any hateful or disturbing interaction regarding Paw Patrol ships from accounts with similar usernames in this kind of pattern, or just hateful over Paw Patrol ships in general, don't give them your time. Report and block on sight, no matter how many times he will try to show up. If you don't interact back, at some point he will get tired and go away. Just don't feed him, be safe, and continue whatever you're doing.
This is your friendly reminder that:
FANDOM IS FAN INTERPRETATION. You do you, be happy.
CANON IS BUT A SUGGESTION. You're free to get your blorbos and create your own stories with them.
And last but not least, HE WOULD NOT SURVIVE THE RISE OF THE BRAVE FROZEN TANGLED DRAGONS ERA 🤣 I say skill issue! Ship and let ship, it doesn't matter if the characters ever met in canon or not. Again, you do you, go and be happy!
And as a last note because I'm salty like that... XD
"You're on the canon ground, I'm up in crackship space
Let's start a shipping war, don't care if I get hate
Don't like my pairings? Well, then you can hit the bricks
This is my OTP, I'll go down with this ship"
"I Ship It!" by Not Literally, parody of "I Love It!" by Icona Pop
REBLOG so more people in the fandom will be made aware and will know not to engage with him - it's NOT WORTH IT, he keeps deleting the accounts very fast anyway, so just don't give him the satisfaction!
Stollas & Stella: Husband and wife live the same life
The fans tend to contrapose these two characters. As if they're polar opposites.
Stollas is soft and gentle, Stella is vile and cruel. Stollas is smart and intelligent, Stella is dumb and shallow. Stollas is good, Stella is bad. And so on.
But what if I say they're not that different?
Yes, that's right! These two have a LOT in common. Much and much more than stans could ever admit. And today I'll prove my point. Are the crazy stans going to lynch me for this? Probably. Do I care? Hell no! So let's dig in, shall we?
First of all I won't go into the points like royal status, arranged marriage, mutual hate and being Octavia's parents since it's too obvious. I'm more interested in analyzing personalities, behavior and mentality of our subjects instead.
So both Stella and Stollas are...
Classicists who look down on the lower class (especially imps). It's expressed differently but the fact still remains. While Stella contemns imps in more direct and explicit way, Stollas uses micro-aggression and fetishization. This is about derogative nicknames, like "impish little plaything" or "big-dicked Blitzy". This is about reading the "Imps in Sheets" book at the dinner table (in the presence of his underaged daughter, btw!). This is about condescending talk, "My grimoire is too important, and it isn't supposed to be lent out to itty-bitty imps like you." This is about sexual objectification and harassment (in the Loo loo land park, at the Harvest Moon festival, even during Blitzø's panic attack!). This is about exploiting Blitzø as a glorified prostitute (even though the writers have been trying to tell us Stollas' in love with him). If none of this seems like discrimination to you, then I don't know... Really, I don't know. I guess nothing can convince you otherwise…
Mistreating their staff. I won't say anything. Just look at these and tell me they're not the same picture. YOU CAN'T.
Using their status and wealth to exploit commoners. Besides having servants, they hire imps for special tasks. Stella hires Striker so he'd kill Stollas in exchange for money. Stollas hires Blitzø so he'd sexually please him in exchange for the grimoire (which stands for Blitzø's business, which stands for money).
Abusing their partners. Again, it's expressed differently. If Stella mostly uses physical abuse, insults and screaming, Stollas' prone to emotional/psychological abuse. Stella's cruelty is blunt and obvious. However, Stollas' abuse toward Blitzø is more subtle, so this requires clarification. Mostly it resembles my first point about the classism. For example, derogatory nicknames that make Blitzø clearly uncomfortable which he's been very vocal about, but Stollas didn't give a flying fuck. Isn't that verbal abuse for you? The Full Moon deal is an example of economical abuse and sexual coercion. Stollas has the resource that is critically important to Blitzø and he uses it to force him into a sex deal, doing this in such circumstances when Blitzø can't even think it over, so he just blurts out, "Fine, whatever!" If it seems like a proper consent to you, then... I don't know, guys! I don't! fucking! know!.. By the way, let's not forget about guilt-tripping and gaslighting. This is the phrases like: "I think so very highly of you, I didn't realize you think so low of me", "Your first instinct that it's always about sex", "I don't look down on you", etc.. Psychological abuse, generally speaking.
Turning their daughter against her other parent. It's funny enough the stans have been accusing Stella of this long before she has even interacted with her daughter on-screen. Yet no one seemed to notice how Stollas had done the same thing much - MUCH! - earlier. I'm speaking about the "Your mother is being a real B-I-T-C-H" line. And no, you can't assume he was arguing with his abuser and that wasn't intentional. No, that WAS. Stollas speaks to Via directly. He turns towards her. He takes a phone away from his face (even covers it with his butler). He spells expecting that Stella won't understand (he thinks she can't read) and seems genuinely surprised when she actually does. That was VERY much intentional. No doubts. And then this dumbass has a nerve to say, "I'm not turning her against you!" Stop fucking lying, you moron!
Pursuing selfish motives. They want to receive, not to give. For Stella it's carefree rich life, and for Stollas - his romantic fantasies. "But Stollas craves LOVE!!! Are you trying to say this is bad?!" No, I'm not. Desire for love is pretty natural thing but it's not a sign of selflessness. You may want to be loved, while not being ready to put some effort in. This is most clearly demonstrated in Stollas' monologue in Apology tour. "I want this, I want that..." And what are YOU willing to give in return, darling? Grand gestures seasoned with manipulations? Well, sorry, that's complete horse shit.
Forgetting about their daughter's needs and neglecting her. Stella tries to kill her husband not thinking how this will affect Octavia. Stollas chases Blitzø forgetting about Octavia. The girl has been suffering from her parents' actions because she isn't their top priority.
Not thinking about the consequences of their own actions. Many stans would say that Stella is a "stupid cow" and Stollas' smart. Jokes on you! They both are dumbasses! She put a hit on her husband, risking to be left with nothing; he has survived an assassination attempt and then does NOTHING to protect himself and his daughter! Gosh, I hate this shitty writing!
Attending the hate-parties dedicated to their partners. I think there's no need to remind you about Verosika's party from Apology Tour. Stella, however, organized the "Not Divorced" party that's apparently linked with the wedding anniversary. Also the narrative emphasizes how she's verbally abusing Stollas. Although there was no burning the dummy or the "Stol-ass KYS" type of merch, I still count this as a hate-party.
Complaining about their partners on the said parties. Stella humiliates Stollas for his skills in bed, and Stollas publicly performs an insulting song about Blitzø because the latter doesn't love him. Before that the prince had been singing similar songs alone though.
Whining or throwing tantrums when don't get what they want. These two are grown ass adults, and yet they're very childish which is shown not only in their actions, but also in the emotional expressions. They don't want to solve anything, they want their silly whims to be fulfilled. Now!
Breaking others' property. Wow, I didn't see that coming but here we are. With Stella this has been clear since the Loo Loo Land episode, but Stollas... He showed the first signs in the Full Moon when he made a mess around the fridge (which his butler had to clean up, duh). However, at Sinsmas he's thrown a huge tantrum and crashed IMP's office.
(I know Sinstagram isn't canon, but I've took the screenshot from there since I couldn't find more representable shots in the show.)
Involving others in solving their problems (even when it's excessively). Stella calls Striker and Andrey, so they take it upon themselves to serve all the villain functions, while she only gets stans' hate boner. And Stollas occasionally gets Blitzø and IMP to do the work for him. And, okay, I get it, he's important for the main cast, so it makes sense that the plot brings them together but... Why the fuck did IMP come with the prince to look for Octavia in S2E2?! She ran away from HIM. So he's responsable and able to bring his daughter back. Remember, Stollas tracked down and rescued IMP in S1E6 WITHOUT the grimoire, so the heck he couldn't do the same for Via?! Why did IMP even follow him? They haven't even done anything in the end of the day (except for Loona who's done everything, lol)!
Supposed to be powerful but in fact they're pathetic incapable losers. Stella was meant to be a main antagonist, the big bad horrible abuser, but she runs away with her tail between her legs as soon as Stollas puts a little pressure on her and can do jackshit without her icy twink brother. Stollas was meant to be a powerful prince who does magical stuff and commands demonic legions, but suddenly - thanks to Viv's yaoi whim - he turned into "damsel in distress" waiting for her knight in shining armor. WTF?
Their charisma and power were amputated and transplanted to Elsa's ripoff bird. Well, at least I used to think that way before Sinsmas has happened. But then... Andrey turned into Stella 2.0 + ice powers + one and a half braincell (because women are brainless and can't scheme /s). So now the pointless of his existence is even more painfully obvious.
Had potential to be compelling villains or nuanced morally grey characters but ended up being horribly flanderized. So many critics speak about how the protagonist centered morality has assassinated Stella's character, but not so many mention how the same thing has destroyed Stollas as well. They could be so compelling, fascinating, complex characters! However, they both ended up like one-dimentional puppets. She's a nasty asshole from the day one and he's a pure sad lonely bean with lovely dreams. She's a hate-sink, he's a woobie. They were reduced to these primitive roles. That's all these characters are meant to be for now and forever. No complexity, no nuance, no unexpected twist in their conflict. Whatever happens, Stollas' always right and Stella's always wrong.
But what is the difference?
Why are these characters ultimately treated so differently? They both were engaged without their consent but people pity Stollas and Stollas only, while the impact of this circumstance on Stella is completely brushed off. When Stella acts classist that means she's irredeemable monster, but when Stollas does the same that means "he doesn't know any better". When Stella's crashing everything around that's awful, terrible, unacceptable, but when Stollas does the same that means he has "panic attack", depression, "show some mercy, you, critical jerks"?
Firstly, the emotional expression. They both were kids forced into the loveless arranged marriage. However, Stollas cries and sings his sappy ballads - he's a good victim, he deserves sympathy. Stella, on the other hand, behaves loudly and bitter - she's a bad victim or not a victim at all, we shouldn't feel sorry for her.
Secondary, the "good" intentions. They both cause harm to others. But Stollas does this unintentionally, he didn't mean it, he's trying his best! And Stella just enjoys tormenting him - that's it.
And last but not least, the portrayal of Stella as an abuser - extremely primitive and blatant. Plus, the narrative barely acknowledges any kind of abuse besides physical (and even the latter is perceived as a joke in 50% of cases). Hence Stollas' an innocent babyboy who craved love, and Stella's an evil incarnate, malicious from the day one, "she strangled puppies in her childhood, booo, what a filthy brat!"
It's kinda amusing how the fandom has such a polar opinion about the characters who actually aren't that different, and even when they are, it's usually not in the favor of public's favorite.
Stollas' a hypocrite. Stella isn't.
Stollas justifies himself constantly. Stella doesn't.
Stollas illegally had been lending a magical heirloom for a sex deal. Stella hadn't.
Stollas made sexual remarks in the presence of his underaged (!!!) daughter. Stella didn't.
Stollas made false promises to Octavia. Stella didn't.
Stollas had been cheating on his spouse. Stella hadn't. (At least this is the case currently. Won't be surprised if S3 "fix" this, so suddenly it turns out that Stella was a cheater all along and didn't even hide the fact, and we're finding this out only now because... well, you can never have too many excuses for Stollas, lol!)
Final thoughts
Stollas and Stella are surprisingly similar. These two egotistical, pompous, spoiled aristocrats are not only terrible individuals but also poorly written characters with wasted potential.
Of course, you still may love one of them, while loath the other. But please, dear stans, don't make the surprized Pikachu face when somebody says Stella isn't that bad (by the Hellaverse standards, obviously) and Stollas isn't so pure and innocent. They have way more similarities than you'd probably like to admit.
